Lawmakers poised to undo harbor deepening permit

COLUMBIA — On Tuesday, the S.C. House voted 111-1 to override S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley’s veto of a measure that would overturn an administrative decision to allow the deepening of the Savannah River to expand the Port of Savannah.

The S.C. Senate must now vote by a two-thirds margin to do so before the resolution will become law, but the upper chamber adjourned for the day Tuesday without taking it up. The override vote was placed on today’s calendar. Lawmakers had approved the resolution, H. 4627, unanimously this month.

On Tuesday afternoon it was unclear where the lawmakers’ actions leave Georgia’s $650 million harbor expansion, a project that is pitting Palmetto State lawmakers against their Republican governor and her appointees to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control board, which issued the dredging permit in November.

Messages with the S.C. Attorney General’s office, the corps and the Georgia Ports Authority were not returned by press time Tuesday.

When asked what DHEC will do if its authority of the Savannah River is suspended and the Nov. 10 permit it issued is thrown out, DHEC spokesman Adam Myrick cited a long-standing policy of not commenting on pending litigation.

He was referring to two legal challenges to the politically explosive permit, which on Monday merged into one consolidated effort to cancel out the DHEC decision.

The Southern Environmental Law Center and the Savannah River Maritime Commission attended a scheduling hearing under S.C. Chief Administrative Law Judge Ralph King Anderson. Both groups had taken to legal channels to fight the DHEC permit issued last fall to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to deepening 38 miles of the river from 42 feet to 48.

The expansion plan is considered Georgia’s most critical public works project, as the Peach State prepares for larger Post-Panamax container ships in 2014.

“The cases have been consolidated. Some of their claims overlap with ours, and some are different,” said Kathleen Sullivan, spokeswoman for the Southern Environmental Law Center, which is fighting Georgia’s $650 million deepening project on behalf of conservation groups in both Georgia and South Carolina.

“At yesterday’s hearing the judge made it clear that the conservation groups and the Savannah River Maritime Commission will have the opportunity to look into why and how DHEC made its final decision,” said Sullivan on Tuesday.

That decision occurred Nov. 10, when the DHEC board gave its blessing to a last-minute settlement between the corps and agency staff. DHEC had denied the permit on Sept. 30 on the grounds that the proposal would damage South Carolina’s environmental interests. But the the state of Georgia offered concessions and the DHEC staff withdrew its objections, recommending instead that the board approve the plan, which it did.

Legal challenges followed — one from the Maritime Commission, which received guidance from the office of the S.C. Attorney General, and another from the environmental organizations.

DHEC officials maintain that the law is on their side, pointing to a non-binding state attorney general’s opinion that affirmed DHEC’s authority.

South Carolina lawmakers, backing up the Maritime Commission, a 5-year-old panel of their own creation, this month unanimously passed a resolution to cancel DHEC’s permit and affirm the commission’s authority over the Savannah River.

On Monday Haley followed through on her intention to veto the resolution, H. 4627, prompting Tuesday’s override in the House.

Haley also wrote in her veto message that the lawmakers’ resolution “reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the administrative process.” She said the joint resolution “has no practical effect” anyway because it targets the wrong administrative action.

“Here we go again. Now it’s as if the governor has adopted Georgia’s legal strategy to defend her actions,” said Sen. Larry Grooms, R-37th District, in a statement Monday.